The pioneers of vaccine invention won the medicine portion of the prize
The 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Katalin Karikó and to Drew Weissman for the breakthrough development of vaccines against COVID-19
This year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to biochemist Katalin Karikó and immunologist Drew Weissman for discoveries that enabled the development of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19.
“The ideas that she and Drew Weismann developed were critical for the success of RNA vaccines,” said John Tregoning, a vaccine immunologist at Imperial College London, in a press statement for the UK Science Media Centre. “They demonstrated that changing the type of the RNA nucleotides within the vaccine altered the way in which cells see it. The increased amount of vaccine made following the injection of the RNA increases the effectiveness of the vaccine.
Many advances were necessary to achieve COVID-19 vaccines based on mRNA, and hundreds of scientists had worked on mRNA vaccines for decades before the breakthrough. (Nature | 21 min read) (Nik Spencer/Nature; Adapted from M. D. Buschmann et al. Vaccines 9, 65 (2021))
The University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia has been paving the way for their development by finding a way to deliver genetic material into cells without triggering an immune response.
The vaccines have been administered more than 13 billion times, saved millions of lives and prevented severe COVID-19 in millions of people, said the Nobel committee.
A pair of scientists have received the prize for their discoveries that enabled the development of vaccines. Plus, the break-up of a supercontinent churned up rare pink diamonds and how a heart starts to beat.
Helen Pearson of Nature Chief Magazine recommended a profile of Karik in The New York Times. It is important for us to show how the spectacularly fast production of COVID-19 vaccines actually rests on decades of meticulously basic research, and also to highlight the difficulties that many scientists face when moving from one temporary position to another to pursue bench research.
Later that year, Karikó and Weissman won one of the most lucrative awards in science: the US$3-million Breakthrough Prize. Karikó recalled the scepticism surrounding her work in the 1990s that led to numerous grant-proposal and paper rejections (including the 2005 paper for which she is now being recognized), and forced her to take a demotion and a pay cut.
The Origin of Pink Diamonds: A World Without Mental Health Professionals? Anjila Sultan is a Female Psychiatric Specialist in Yemen
Western Australia’s unusual pink diamonds were brought to the surface by the break-up of Nuna, an ancient supercontinent, which triggered volcanic eruptions 1.3 billion years ago. “The diamonds are being forced to bend and twist,” says geologist and study co-author Hugo Olierook. Some of these diamonds are pink if they are twisted just a little bit. Diamonds were formed up from the mantle after Nuna split, when it dredged a seam along a continental boundary. Volcanic eruptions then brought the diamond-bearing melt to the surface.
An embryo’s heart seems to coordinate its very first beat quite haphazardly. In developing zebrafish (Danio rerio), naturally occurring electrical signals in surrounding tissue activate a random cluster of heart cells, which start beating. This causes nearby cells to start doing the same thing. This is different from an adult zebrafish’s heartbeat, which is tightly controlled by cells in the heart’s pacemaker region.
Anjila Sultan, head of a team of five female psychologists that helps women and children in Yemen, says it is her duty not to leave behind those who are suffering as a result of painful experiences. Yemen has been in a civil war for the past three years and lacks mental health professionals. “Working in such conditions requires neutrality during quarrels between different parts of the population, and the ability to deal quietly with questions from people who might be suspicious of our motives,” Sultan explains.
Source: Daily briefing: Medicine Nobel Prize for mRNA research
Orphanfish: Jack Pokoj wins ocean wildlife photographer of the year award for a photo of a lizardfish swallowing its most recent meal
There are serious ethical and regulatory concerns when models produce something similar to an intact human embryo. Researchers should ask themselves if they make this model for scientific purposes, if there is an alternative system and if they can defend their work in the court of public opinion. Often, models that mimic only certain aspects of development can address pressing research questions as well as embryo models can, they argue.
Jack Pokoj won Oceanographic’s ocean wildlife photographer of the year award for this image of a lizardfish struggling to swallow its most recent meal.
Katalin Karik and Drew Weissmann have won the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries that enabled the development of COVID-19 vaccines. “The ideas [that] she and Drew Weismanndeveloped were critical for the success of RNA vaccines,” said John Tregoning, a vaccine immunologist at Imperial College London, in a press statement for the UK Science Media Centre.